He imaginatively dressed up Lorne Greene in TV’s Battlestar Galactica and artfully dressed down Brooke Shields in the cult classic film The Blue Lagoon. But Quantum Leap fans will best remember costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorléac for giving their favorite show its most iconic image, and for giving their favorite hologram his flamboyant style.
In our post Mad Men, nostalgia-driven media culture, it’s hard to remember a time when costumes weren’t so much wistful distractions to be blogged about as they were tools to transport viewers into another time and place. And when it comes to embodying eras gone by, Don Draper ain’t got nothing on Sam Beckett.
And that’s thanks to Dorléac. In his series-long tenure as costume designer for Quantum Leap, Dorléac had one of the most important jobs on show. When Sam Leapt into a new time and place, his first clue as to who and where he was was often his outfit. It was a crucial, visual shorthand for both the character and the viewers—one that required Dorléac to reliably recreate four decades worth of fashions.
He rose to the challenge brilliantly; whether tracking a dropper named Clapper as noirish Nick Allen in “Play it Again, Seymour,” fighting sexism as a stylishly-dressed Samantha Stormer in “What Price Gloria” or romancing on the high seas as wealthy playboy Philip Dumont in “Sea Bride,” Sam convincingly inhabited any era a story required. And Dorléac made it look so natural and effortless that he was nominated for four Emmys for his work on Quantum Leap (including for the aforementioned “Sea Bride”). In fact, his QL period costuming was so effective that it is now studied in university classes.
But not only did Dorléac have to faithfully recreate the past. He also had to give viewers a glimpse of the future. And his fashion choices have given Quantum Leap its signature genre style.

The designer’s futuristic flourishes take front and center in the show’s very first scenes. Al’s neon star lapel pin and matching shoe appliques are prominently featured in the tease for “Genesis,” as are Tina’s LED high heels and earrings. And while we’re still grinning over this retro-future chic, Dorléac hits us with Quantum Leap’s most iconic image: Sam, in his clean, white Fermi suit, arms outstretched, being buffeted by quantum energy in the Accelerator Chamber as he prepares for his first Leap.
Fashion, both real and imagined, was critical to the success of Quantum Leap. And fashion would remain the show’s primary tool to differentiate the past from the future, embodied mainly by Al.

Al’s flamboyant fashion choices were a brilliant counterpoint to Sam’s historic mien. And while the metallic fabrics, funky cuts and garish hues may have started out as a visual gimmick to make the hologram an anachronistic standout in Sam’s pedestrian surroundings, they evolved into an abiding character statement for Al. For a man who spent five years in filthy black rags as a POW, Al’s colorful clothes proclaim that he remains unbroken, and that he’s full of joy and lust and a zest for life.Quantum Leap wasn’t the first time Dorléac recreated historical fashions for show creator Donald P. Bellisario. They started working together on Bellisario’s 1930’s era series Tales of the Gold Monkey. And Dorléac lent his futuristic vision to a parade of genre shows through the 1970s and 80s: Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century, Automan, The Greatest American Hero, Max Headroom, Knight Rider and the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica, for which he won his first Emmy. And his impressive roster of film work includes another time travel classic, Somewhere in Time, starring the late Christopher Reeve.

Dorléac has chronicled his storied career in his new memoir, The Naked Truth: An Irreverent Chronicle of Delirious Escapades. In it, the costume designer relates never-before-told, behind-the-scenes stories about working in theater, couture, television and film.
And in the vein of those never-before-told stories, The Quantum Leap Podcast is proud to bring you Jean-Pierre Dorléac’s first-ever interview about his work on Quantum Leap. Listen as he recounts his time with Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell and the unique challenges presented by Sam’s trips through time. Along the way he tells us more about The Naked Truth, and his passion to preserve historic Hollywood fashions.
Join us as we take this couturistic leap!

Signed copies of The Naked Truth: An Irreverent Chronicle of Delirious Escapades, are available at Mr. Dorléac’s website jean-pierredorleac.comThe Naked Truth: An Irreverent Chronicle of Delirious Escapades is also available on Amazon.com and wherever good books are sold.

In the thirty-third installment of The Quantum Leap Podcast, Albie and Heather discuss season three, episode three Leap Of Faith. There are first impressions, an episode recap, thoughts and opinions, listener feedback, a great interview with Bud Sabatino, who played Sam’s leapee, Father Frank Pistano. Also, two great segments from Christopher DeFilippis, The Italian Problem, and Quantum Leap Radio Sightings: Genesis Redux. Also an article from Hayden McQueenie about Al, and religion in Quantum Leap. And an awesome song, I Always Feel Like (I’m Gonna Quantum Leap) – Rockwell Parody by Bonecage.

In the thirty-fourth installment of The Quantum Leap Podcast, Albie and Heather discuss season three, episode four “One Strobe Over The Line”. There are first impressions, an episode recap, thoughts and opinions, listener feedback, and two great interviews, one with Susan Anton, who played Helen Le Baron in One Strobe Over The Line, and an interview with the author of the Quantum Leap novel Independence John Peel. Also, two great segments from Christopher DeFilippis, Origin Story, and Quantum Leap Radio Sightings: 3.4 One Strobe Over The Line. Also an article from Hayden McQueenie about wibbily wobbly timey wimey bits in Quantum Leap.

Yes "Residential Leap" was great and you're welcome to post any links to anything that you like. Picking the top 3 winners of the competition will be extremely difficult as there are so many contenders.

Once we are back in the full swing of things we will upload our remaining entries.

In the thirty-fifth installment of The Quantum Leap Podcast, Albie and Heather discuss season three, episode five “The B**gieman”. There are first impressions, an episode recap, thoughts and opinions, and four amazing interviews with: Paul Linke, who played Sheriff Ben Masters in The Halloween Episode, Emmy Award winner Valerie Mahaffey who played Mary Greely in The Halloween Episode, and after 26 years of silence, we find out this episode’s greatest secret, what really happened from Writer, Producer, Leapee (Joshua Rae), and Director (Southern Comforts) of Quantum Leap, Chris Ruppenthal. Also Hayden has a great interview with the author of the Quantum Leap novel Search and Rescue, Melissa Crandall, in the segment, A Novel Concept. Also, two great segments from Christopher DeFilippis B**gieman: Supernatural Horrors, and Quantum Leap Radio Sightings: 1.2 Star-Crossed. Also an article from Hayden McQueenie about… goats?

Please note, as this forum censors the name of this episode, I can't link to the podcast episode page. Please go to the homepage www.quantumleappodcast.com and select this episode from Season 3

Yes "Residential Leap" was great and you're welcome to post any links to anything that you like. Picking the top 3 winners of the competition will be extremely difficult as there are so many contenders.

Once we are back in the full swing of things we will upload our remaining entries.

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her works include:
The Fey series: With a sweeping scope reminiscent of George R.R. Martin’s Westeros and intricate characters like those in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Fey series takes fantasy in a whole new direction. When the most powerful ruling family in the world attempts to conquer a tiny, seemingly helpless island kingdom, they meet forces they never knew existed. In a fight spread over generations, this saga of hope and magic proves that the greatest power of all comes from love;
The Retrieval Artist series – a series of 15 books, consisting of seven standalone novels and the Anniversary Day Saga, an epic, eight-book story of conspiracy, revenge and shadowy justice. Miles Flint, no stranger to tough cases, walks a razor edge as he and others struggle to save the Moon from total destruction. Where will you be when the bombs go off?
And the Diving series: a space opera set in a vividly imagined far-future universe, featuring a strong, capable female heronie, blending fast-paced action with an exploration of the nature of friendship and the ethics of scientific discoveries.

Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.
Rusch publishes mystery novels under the pseudonym Kris Nelscott. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. Her Nelscott mystery novels include the Smokey Dalton series: Memphis, 1968. Black P.I., white client. And Martin Luther King’s on the way… Memphis P.I. SMOKEY DALTON is hired by a wealthy woman from Chicago to find out why her mother left him $10,00 in her will. Toss in the fact that 1968 Memphis is a racial powderkeg set to go off, with an on-going Sanitation Workers’ Strike and the impending arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. contributing to the mix. Now add in that Smokey’s developing a strong, and apparently mutual attraction to his white client, and you’ve got one hell of a read that offers an unflinching look at a pivotal moment in American history. He’s an appealing private eye, a loner with a strong set of ethics, burning with anger at the injustices he sees everyday, but careful to distance himself from the struggle for equality swirling all around him, or any personal involvement. He doesn’t even commit himself to his profession –he prefers to call himself an “odd-jobs man.” But the distance Smokey tries to keep is rapidly shrinking, even as his attraction grows, and it soon becomes obvious that somehow, somewhere, his client’s life and his are inextricably linked.

Rusch writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, futuristic science fiction as Kris DeLake, and has sold a number of short stories.
She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

Rusch is one of the few people who can boast having both “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” on her resume, being the author of Star Wars: The New Rebellion, and writing or co-writing ten novels set in the Star Trek universe.

Sandy Schofield is the pen name that Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband Dean Wesley Smith use for their collaborative writing works. Leapers will know Sandy Schofield best as the “author” of the Quantum Leap novel “Loch Ness Leap”: Dr Donald Harding, theoretical physicist, believes only in science. His son Travis believes in the unbelievable. It’s March of 1986 when Sam leaps into Harding, who has come to Loch Ness, where his son is attempting to prove to him the existence of the fabled monster. Ziggy says that there is a fifty percent chance that Sam is there to keep the two from becoming permanently estranged. But Sam suspects that there is something more to the leap – something concerning Travis Harding’s girlfriend, an oddly familiar young woman who calls herself Dixie Fuller. Sam is right. He is not at Loch Ness for Donald Harding’s son – he is there for his own daughter. And what he does will be the key to her future – as well as his own…

Loved listening to my story come to life. One small problem - the last minute skips. It is there, if I move it forward a couple of seconds it will then run to the end, but if I let it play the last 5 minutes, it jumps from 1.01 remaining to the next title in my iTunes. Any ideas? It works fine if I play it online direct from the Podcast page.

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Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.(Leo Buscaglia) Helen in Bedford

Loved listening to my story come to life. One small problem - the last minute skips. It is there, if I move it forward a couple of seconds it will then run to the end, but if I let it play the last 5 minutes, it jumps from 1.01 remaining to the next title in my iTunes. Any ideas? It works fine if I play it online direct from the Podcast page.

Hi Helen, I just listened to the version I downloaded from the page and it plays fine, so maybe there was a problem with how it downloaded. You could try deleting it from your computer and downloading it again? If that doesn't work I'll have to speak to Albie...

Hi Helen, I just listened to the version I downloaded from the page and it plays fine, so maybe there was a problem with how it downloaded. You could try deleting it from your computer and downloading it again? If that doesn't work I'll have to speak to Albie...

Okay, tried that. Unfortunately it does exactly the same thing. Maybe it's just my i-Tunes.

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Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.(Leo Buscaglia) Helen in Bedford

OK I will let Albie know. I don't use i-Tunes, I just download to the computer and play on Media Player.

My husband says that i-Tunes has a 'smooth transition' that is designed to segway into the next track without pauses. He thinks it is just tripping a little early on this track. My son is going to try importing it into audacity and adding a few seconds of blank 'tape' to the end, to trick it into waiting. I'll let you know how he gets on.

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Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.(Leo Buscaglia) Helen in Bedford

In the thirty-sixth installment of The Quantum Leap Podcast, Albie and Heather discuss season three, episode six, Miss Deep South. There are first impressions, an episode recap, thoughts and opinions, listener feedback, and two great interviews from episode guest stars.

Our first interview is with David Allen Brooks who played sleazy photographer Clint Beaumont. Our second interview is with Nancy Stafford who played pageant coordinator Peg Myers. Both discuss their time working on the show and their current projects.
Also stopping by is episode writer and friend of the podcast Tommy Thompson. Tommy tells us his inspiration for writing Miss Deep South and gives a unique, behind the scenes perspective on how the episode came together.

If that’s not enough, Hayden McQueenie is back with his latest “Quantum Deep” segment – where he reviews the Quantum Leap comic book “Waiting” and discusses a unique wardrobe challenge presented by Miss Deep South. Christopher DeFilippis also returns, discussing how the humor in this episode inspired some of the more comedic aspects of his QL novel Foreknowledge, and why he considers Miss Deep South a high mark of the series and one of its best episodes. He also brings us another edition of the Quantum Leap Radio Sightings
In addition, Albie teams up with special guest Peter Veunnasack to read viewer feedback.
Listen up for all that and more.